Coun­cil names new CEO

Ross has ex­ten­sive ex­pe­ri­ence in lo­cal gov­ern­ment, most re­cently for the Far North Dis­trict Coun­cil.

She said she was look­ing for­ward to her new role.

‘‘It’s re­ally ex­cit­ing. It’s a small coun­cil that’s go­ing places. It’s ob­vi­ously grow­ing, and I want to be part of that fu­ture,’’ she said.

Though Ross hasn’t lived in the re­gion be­fore she has vis­ited ex­ten­sively, hav­ing stud­ied and lived in Welling­ton.

‘‘I have two young chil­dren, so it pro­vides the mix of ed­u­ca­tion, life­style and work that’s good for my fam­ily. I’ve al­ways seen Wairarapa as an ex­cit­ing place, one with a touch of re­al­ism.’’

Her pre­vi­ous lead­er­ship roles in­clude gen­eral man­ager of plan­ning and pol­icy for the North­land Re­gional Coun­cil, pol­icy de­vel­op­ment ad­vi­sor for the United King­dom’s En­vi­ron­ment Agency, and gen­eral man­ager strate­gic plan­ning and pol­icy for the Far North Dis­trict Coun­cil. She will take over in Au­gust. Master­ton Mayor Lyn Pat­ter­son said she was impressed with Ross’s skills and ex­pe­ri­ence.

‘‘We’re de­lighted to have Kath join us at Master­ton Dis­trict Coun­cil - she brings